These are totally traditional. I haven't done any thread crochet in a long time and I wanted to do this simple pattern from one of my favorite Japanese craft books.

These are his and hers coasters. 'Cause you know, thread crochet with scalloped edges becomes manly if you use dark blue....

I think it only takes about 2 hours to do one of these. I did the pink one while watching one of the Asian Horror films on the Sundance channel last night. The film was pretty stupid but it had creepy imagery.